War Trials and Future Peace

Report Outline
Trials of War Criminals After World War II
Legality and Justice of Nuremberg Trial
Effect of Trials on Organization for Peace

Trials of War Criminals After World War II

Five Years ago this October, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Premier Stalin joined in noting the “ruthless cruelties” of the enemy, and declared: “Let those who have hitherto not imbrued their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the three Allied powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and will deliver them to their accusers in order that justice may be done.”

Now, three years after the close of World War II, the last of the verdicts on major enemy war criminals are about to be handed down, The Tokyo judgment on former Premier Tojo and other major Japanese criminals is scheduled for announcement before the end of October and final judgments on major Nazi criminals are expected in a matter of weeks. Leaser war criminals by the thousands, in tribunals of every Allied nation, have been given trial and received sentence. Trials of lesser war criminals are still in progress, but with each day the number of those yet to be dealt with is reduced. By the end of 1948 the great task of trial and punishment will be substantially completed.

Never before in history has the judicial process been used so extensively by the victorious powers at the end of hostilities as a part of the settlement with the enemy. Never before has the planning and waging of aggressive war been made punishable as a crime. Never before have individuals, including the heads of states, been held responsible to the international community for crimes against the peace.